The days of local law enforcement patrolling the halls of some Williamsburg County schools are over after the Williamsburg County School District Board of Trustees approved to hire a private security agency, U.S. Security Associates. The move replaces a paid Student Resource Officers (SRO), provided by the Kingstree Police Department (KPD) at Kingstree Junior High School and a sheriff’s deputy at C.E. Murray High School with private security employees.
U.S. Security Associates staff is SLED certified and has the same authority of law enforcement such as the power to arrest someone. Four employees have been hired. The majority of incidents police handled occurred at Kingstree Junior High, Kingstree Senior High, Kingstree Elementary and Adult Education. Most incidences involved minimal disturbances such as fighting, disorderly conduct and classroom disturbance but there have been occasions where knives were confiscated during a fight and sexual misconduct has been reported.
Hemingway Police Chief Brian Todd, Hemingway Town Council, and others were successful in convincing the school board to keep Hemingway SRO Archie Kennedy. Kennedy’s presence during the 2009-2010 school year reflected a positive impact on the students and a substantial de-crease in incidents. Hemingway Town Council approved an amendment of the town’s budget to include funds for the SRO that the district will not cover.
Similar circumstances that guided Hemingway Town Council’s decision have occurred at the Kingstree Junior High School. Based upon KPD statistics, the school had experienced a high number of incidents until the district hired an officer in 2007. The officer quickly developed a relationship with the students and within her first year reports of incidents had dropped dramatically.
Kingstree Police Chief Robert Ford is planning to meet with Kingstree Senior High School Principal Dr. Fred Moore, where he will discuss any procedure changes such as reporting incidents now that the agency is in place.
The KPD continues to have jurisdiction over all public schools and will continue to rotate officers at each school on a regular basis. According to the district’s human resources officer contact with the board is made only through that department. A list of questions regarding the security agency was forwarded to that department Tuesday, August 17, but by press time the board had not responded.